High School Sports Booster Fundraising Ideas - need help!

[ttfn3]

I've taken the plunge to help my son's high school cross country team to help the parents club raise money for some out of state meets that our team will be participating in this fall. We need about $10,000 by mid-September

We have some good ideas - and are searching for some more ideas. Does anyone have any good fundraising ideas that you would be willing to share? Here's what we are doing so far:
Garage Sale
Spirit Nights at local restaurants (give us a % of the sales)
Community 5K
Apple picking (we get paid to pick apples!)
Raffle - boys will sell raffle tickets. We're looking for donations of items. So far have a Ipad3
High School 5K invitational - we make $ off t-shirt sales
Sub sale - usually held in conjuction with Super Bowl (so we raise $ to begin the next season)

What works well for your team? Any sports team fundraising ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[cornflake]

Ten thousand dollars? I...

I'll only say, again, check the local laws before you hold any sort of raffle or 50/50 or etc. There are many places in which that sort of thing is highly regulated or outright prohibited.

 

[aprilgail2]

We have a chinese auction at school every year and we make between 10,000-15,000 each year on that.

I have run the lottery numbers tickets "Daily Number Lottery Calendar. We will be selling calendars for the months of March for 10.00. The winners are based on the NYS Lottery Daily number which is drawn in the evening. If you are interested in purchasing, please contact us and we will arrange to get a calendar to you." That one usually brings in about 7500.00-8,000 depending on the prize amounts you decide to give out.

We do 50/50's at every event you can imagine, even the drama club plays LOL...

 

[jam217]

The schools around here sell grocery store gift cards and get 5% of the sales.

 

[Kimberle]

Our middle school had a teachers talent show. The teachers were wonderful "sports". Most of the acts were ment to be "comical" (bad singing, etc.) Nearly every student in the school attended. Not all the teachers performed, maybe 20%. We raised over $4000 in one night.

 

[Kimberle]

Ten thousand dollars? I...

I'll only say, again, check the local laws before you hold any sort of raffle or 50/50 or etc. There are many places in which that sort of thing is highly regulated or outright prohibited.

They are in my state. You have to register with the state, have a license, etc. If you don't comply, the school would get in big trouble.

 

[shortbun]

Our Booster org make huge money from their spring mulch sale-huge. A few dads run it and they get all their buddies with trucks, then the athletes jump in/on the trucks and it's all delivered. Too late for that but consider it for next year. You have to start early for whatever you do. One of the sports, can't remember which one, has a pie sale. They do it for Thanksgiving and Easter. That brings in some moola. Yeah, the local restaurant fundraisers but you have to be early because they only do so many a month. We can no longer do raffles in our school district. $10K is a lot to raise in two months. Do you have a good parking lot that you can charge to park for outside events? One of our local schools makes a fortune charging to park there for OSU football games. They are on campus and have someone watching the lot.

 

[scbelleatheart]

Reverse raffle. Tickets are $100. We do it every year. Look for someplace that will donate their facility.
Central Ohio, call the original Howl at the Moon Guys in Cincy. i have to look up their number. They charge $1400. You will bring in $8000 easily plus sell jello shots and do a silent auction.

 

[Claudia1]

We did a Harlem Wizards basketball game for the Band Boosters and it was an easy way to earn $3,000.00. Could have been more if a key person had not dropped the ball...... pardon the pun! You get part of the tickets and merchandise. You can also have silent auctions and do all of the concessions for full profit.

The biggest selling point was when the players visited the schools at lunch to interact with the kids. At least half of our tickets were sold to kids' families that begged to come after the lunch visit. You provide the opposing team. If you can get interesting people that would draw a crowd, so much better for you.

The Band Boosters have done it all..... selling, concession stands, booklets, etc... and this was the easiest and best by far.

 

[Princess Nancy]

Contact your local Market Day Representative.

I am fairly certain you have Market Day in Central Ohio, I am in Dayton.

They do Bonus Days in Nov, Dec and April and you can earn up to 45% Profit on Pies, Cookie Dough and Desserts.

If that doesn't work for you they have lots of other options. PM me if you need a contact name!!

The events are well run and easily organized!! The products are great and Market Day has a 100% Guarantee!

 

[dizzi]

Watermelon Fund Raiser....

specially helpful if you can get local Markets to donate the water melon.

party it up and everyone comes to eat Watermelon, they pay at the end, save the seeds....And pay a certain price like a wuarter or dime fo blackseeds and dime for the whte seeds.

*************************************************************
Auction off the kids for the day....
To the highest bidder a go to do what ever chores the bidder needs done for the day.

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[bittybabygrower]

Wow...by mid September! Are the boosters helping you??? That is a lot of money to raise in a few months time! We usually take over a year to plan for something that big!

We do car washes, candy sales, pancake breakfast (the VFW helps with that), tailgate at football games, string bags with the school name, etc on them, window decals.

 

[kidzmom3]

our biggest fundraiser is a golf tournament, but we hold it for the entire high school athletic department because it is so much work. But, last year it made close to $80,000.

You need a high end golf course to donate the course it self

you need businesses to sponsor each hole.

will a caterer or the golf club donate food for the after party.

local band to donate time for the awards/dinner dance party

get other businesses or families to donate prizes and items for either auction or raffle baskets (depending on your 501c3 status)

sell tickets to the tournament in groups of 4 for a high price (that why you need the high end golf club, that is usually members only so its a treat)

sell tickets to the black tie dinner/dance awards

 

[jbcheerchick93]

Vera Bradley Bingo. Make up baskets, tickets are 20 ahead and 25 at the door, extra sheets for $1, daubers for $1, and a snack bar with homemade goodies, you'll make 5,000+ fairly easily.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I like the 5K and golf ideas best of those listed so far. I've seen those kinds of events have a LOT of success. Auction dinners can also do well, or specialty events (our booster club used to do the Donkey Basketball - my Dad scored all the points because he had the only cooperative donkey ).

 

[ttfn3]

Thanks everyone for your great ideas - keep them coming if you have more. We are fortunate that we make quite a bit of money on the 5K - about $5,000 which we split half with the girls program. We also make about $2500 from super bowl sub sales. Just looking for some new ideas. I like the golf tournament idea. Maybe for next year? too late to plan for this year - and we get a lot of local sponsors for the 5K - don't want to approach them to support two events.

 

[sunshine1178]

I prefer fundraisers where the kids are working for their money -- mulch sales, babysitting, lawn raking, etc. Please don't ask me to buy overpriced wrapping paper. (Although, present wrapping would be a good fundraiser.)

 

[Scrappy_Tink]

I've heard of a silly fund raiser,where you decorate a toilet and put it in someone's yard, with a note of who to call to pick it up, and they will deliver it to one of their friends for a fee (like $5). So it just goes yard to yard of people pranking their friends, and you make money.

 

[js]

Thanks everyone for your great ideas - keep them coming if you have more. We are fortunate that we make quite a bit of money on the 5K - about $5,000 which we split half with the girls program. We also make about $2500 from super bowl sub sales. Just looking for some new ideas. I like the golf tournament idea. Maybe for next year? too late to plan for this year - and we get a lot of local sponsors for the 5K - don't want to approach them to support two events.

Hi. Can you please tell me more about the 5K and what you did?
I am the team mom for my ds's HS V Baseball team and we are going to Disney in March for Spring training. Looking for some ideas to off set the costs.
Thanks.

 

[njmom47]

We've done Mother's Day plant sale, town-wide garage sale, magnetic stickers for cars (we just put our school mascot, not a specific sport), bagging at local supermarkets, % of proceeds at local resturants, raffle calendar (daily prizes for 2 months in all different categories), a 10% off card used at many local businesses, local comedy club donates a portion of proceeds, and our local minor-league baseball team will let you man the concession for a few hours with a % of proceeds.